The Sunday Mail
Milton Kamwendo
Be too busy to be bored, too focused to tune into sterile conversations, too vibrant to be stopped. The tuning nob is in your hands. Take extreme ownership and be inspired because the world of greatness is an infinity pool. The edge is your potential, it is an imaginary boundary.
What things are, is not what things have always been and what they will always be. In my earlier years, radio had to always be on. It was the first thing you put on when you woke up. That was when radio, was radio and being greeted on radio was like being kissed by a deity. Then, radio dominated my family’s life and it always seemed to be on and had to be on all the time. If it was off, one needed an explanation. There were popular programmes that could not be missed. There were special songs that would play, play and play again and the volume (especially when Mother and Father were away) had to be maxed out.
There was a company called “Supersonic” which made radios and fitted them into special cabinets, make a radio a choice item of furniture and family pride. The version that included an automated turn table was the premier range. Perhaps the most important item on the radio was the big silver nob that we used to tune the radio to the desired station. Whoever controlled that nob, controlled what people heard and danced to.
It is many years since but I remember vividly, at father’s instruction, having to carefully and respectfully move that tuning nob to ensure that it was at the right meter-band. Playing with the nob, was playing with life and testing parental patience. Those were the days when radio DJ would work visual miracles.
They had a way of connecting and commentary that fired up unforgettable pictures in your mind. I remember the commentary of soccer and boxing matches. On radio everything was faster, more vivid, colourful and action packed. Those commentators never too a glass of water or coughed on radio. It was special and you would not dream of one day ever meeting a radio DJ, without this becoming news for a whole clan and writing about this in your favourite composition.
I can never forget the radio broadcasts of the boxing fights of the great Proud Kilimanjaro, Zimbabwe’s heavy weight champion. Those were the days before Alfonso Zvenyika “Mosquito” Lambarda. Guarding the sanctity of the radio nob, as my assigned duty was, we followed Kilimanjaro’s fight against Lottie Mwale of Zambia and also how he humbled Joe Kalala of Tanzania in 1983, till Kalala claimed that “juju” was used that evaporated his powers. From then on “juju” became an ordinary word. Then there were the soccer matches. “Watching” soccer on radio is special, and unforgettable. You literally see the ball roll across the field, you witness the dribbling wizardry, and are discouraged by the offsides traps.
Those were the days when Zimbabwe Saints was a major team that could do no wrong and when Rio Tinto was revered. The spoiler was always when someone tempered with that “tune-in” nob and you could not clearly get the radio transmission at the critical time of the match. They could not be forgiven easily.
Today life is a lot different, but the need to tune-in to the right wavelength remains ever so important. It is perhaps the number one motivation competence that you will ever need.
Whatever you tune to into determines your energy levels and what you see, hear and do. If you want to change your life, change the channel you are tuned to. If the messages that you are receiving are demotivating you, just change the channel. Guard that tune-in nob and move it wisely. You do not afford the luxury of a negative thought or a cynical life.
Tune in to the Positive
Tune out of the horror movie stories and tune into the positive, productive and promising. Whatever happens you need that energy to be flowing in order to move forward.
There is a greatness to be hunted. Tune into the positive flow. Instead of caching all the discouraging, disappointing and depressing messages change your station. Tune out and tune in. In the midst of the doom and gloom broadcasts, tune in to the positive, productive and possible. See possibilities and dwell on what gives you bursts of energy. Stop dreaming-walking your way through life. Do not allow other people to pollute your mind with their dirty broadcasts. Manage the gates of your mind. Instead of looking for those who are doing nothing, tune into those who are progressing.
There are massive opportunities all around you. You are not limited by geography, genetics or gender. Every place you go there will always be negative broadcasts, it is up to you to choose what to tune into. Mute out the messages that make your energies evaporate.
Do not wait for someone to motivate you while you are tuning into the wrong voices. Tune out of discouraging, limiting conversations and tune into the creative mode. There is so much to do and so much opportunity to make a difference and to make your life worth something. Greatness is always inviting worthy suitors.
Tune into the Possible
To him who believes all things are possible. Instead of dwelling on the impossible, tune into the possible. Do not allow anyone to tell you that it cannot be done because it can.
Do not let anyone set for you limits of what is possible and what is not possible. If you can see it clearly in your mind, you can do it and you can become it. Work those images in your head into a motivational flame. You may have to work a little harder, do a little more. Miracles are happening every day and your life is a living miracle and testimony waiting to be narrated.
What used to be impossible will become daily routines. In your space and in your time, you can do great things. Challenge your limits of possibility. Challenge the limitations that you have set for yourself. Challenge the walls in your own thinking. It is not so much about others people and what they broadcast, it is about you and what you tune into. There are endless possibilities and limitless graces.
Tune in to the Power Within
Inside you resides massive power. There is so much potential within you. There is more power in you than outside you. You carry massive payloads of motivational dynamite within you.
Do not dwell on the little you have shown to date, keep mining your power. Do not be discouraged because time feels like it is slipping away. Do not take yourself off the shelf before your sell-by date.
As long as you have breathe, you can still throw one more blow and do some big bold things. Stop looking at the mountains outside you, you have the power to move the mountains inside you. Tune in to the power within.
You have greatness living in you. You have awesome untapped potential. Likely you have not yet tapped even 1 percent of what you are capable of being and doing. Do not let people close the curtains for your stage of life too soon.
It is not about your children. Stop using children as an excuse for not stepping forth and doing great things. Stop using parents as an excuse for being limited. Stop using your GPS as an excuse for not progressing in life.
Stop quoting your company leaders as your excuse. Where are you right now is your acre of diamonds. Tune in to the power and potential within you.
If need be, resign from all the fellowships of negativity. Resign from groups that make you doubt your potential and give graphic details of discouragement. Resign from associations that dispirit you. Resign from memberships that leave you feeling powerless, passive and puny. Use your tune-in nob and move to the right station. The broadcast is on.
This is the best time to be alive. Believe it and thrive on this mantra. Tell it to yourself until you believe it. Stop comforting yourself and thinking the days when there was no internet, no mobile technology and no-this and no-that were better.
The best time is now. There are more opportunities now than ever before. Stop making journeys to the past and thinking it was better. If you do not become better you will increasing become bitter. Try visiting your village for inspiration. Try visiting your primary school for motivation. There is more that is calling for your name and asking you to show up and step up. Do not allow anyone’s limited view of the world shrink your vision to fit into their picture of depravity.
Try out something you have never tried. Go where you have never been and do what you have never done. Change your play field, change your game.
Who said your competition is the village bully? Go beyond your limitations and play at new levels. If where you are feels too crowded, you are likely flying too close to the ground. If the people around you do not seem to be giving you space you likely are playing your game in the mediocre leagues. The sky is big enough for you to launch your dream.
There are more resources looking for ideas, than there are ideas that are looking for resources. There is more potential that has not been mined than that which has been.
There are more deals that have not been stitched together than those that have. There is more to be excited about right where you are than to be discourage about.
The tun-in nob is in your hands. It is all up to you. It is you who makes the difference. It is too early to give up and too late to dwell on the impossible. There is no time to waste when there is so much to do and so little time to do it.
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and executive coach. He is a cutting strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected] and Twitter: @MiltonKamwendo or WhatsApp at: 0772422634. His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com.
